Casted Ovens versus Metal Ovens

[moderator]

Since Forno Bravo announced the launch of Bella Outdoor Living (Bella Outdoor Living | Live Outdoors. Beautifully.), we have been getting the question ?whats the difference between Metal and the Cast Refractory Dome ovens??

While both products are capable of cooking authentic Vera Pizza Naploetana, and are Quality and Price leaders in their segment; there are significant differences.

Forno Bravo?s traditional ovens are designed for ?Retained? heat cooking and support temperatures that exceed 900 degrees. These ovens are ideal for the true enthusiast that wants to immerse themselves in Wood Fired cooking including Roasts and serious Bread making. You can cook pizza one night, and bake bread the next morning without re-starting your fire.

Bella Outdoor Living?s ovens are a great product for those who don?t have the room for Forno Bravo?s larger ovens. Or want a lower cost introduction to Wood Fired Pizza. These units will heat up very fast and achieve 750 degrees sustained heat for cooking. They will also cool down in about an hour allowing this lightweight unit to be easily transported. Great for a family Pizza night!

We invite our Forum members to discuss the pros and cons of each style oven and share their experiences.

Enjoy!

[cobblerdave]

Re: Casted Ovens versus Metal Ovens

G'day
Always the "Mug" who can't help themselves....
But here goes. A Neo pizza go to. pizza making.com and you'll get an argument on what constitutes a proper a proper Neo pizza .... And about 7 different other styles, cooked on a large range of "appliances" . But all things aside it's all about cooking, and enjoying seeing someone else enjoy the whole cooking process itself.
The steel ovens would not produce the magic " Neo pizza experience " but the heck it would involve you in the "Wood fired Experience "
Get yourself a 9 yr old don't care if its a boy or girl and get them in control of a wood fired oven. Lighting the first match , tending the fire, you have this young person hooked. They love it. And as always the food an extra bonus !
Myself I like the idea of cooking from that heat next day, but I have a 42 inch oven, perhaps that's a bit big for me and the "child bride" today.
As I've said this is my experience, but for me , its a home grown oven, and an instant WFO I find a bit of a micro wave experience
Regards dave

[v12spirit]

Re: Casted Ovens versus Metal Ovens

The experience of a regular wood fired oven with its granted full range cooking (Pizza>Bread>Meat>veges) for multiple days from a single firing is very tempting, that even me (who come from a steel oven background which is my first unfinished build) could not be content with my steel oven, and wanted to start building a regular brick oven too.

However, the steel dome oven is the best option for those who want 90 secs pizzas, and still want to get the pizza when they want rather than waiting a regular oven for a while to saturate. Those people could not enjoy the 90 secs pizza without a steel oven. I my self is the hybrid type of people; I like the joy of regular ovens, and still sometimes want pizza done just in time "with the very same quality". Moreover, The steel dome ovens are fuel efficient that you put fuel as much as you cook, which is economical in some places where wood is not free or maybe expensive or even hard to fetch.

IMHO, casted ovens are "professional edition" ovens, while steel ones are "home edition" ones.

[stonecutter]

Re: Casted Ovens versus Metal Ovens

However, the steel dome oven is the best option for those who want 90 secs pizzas, and still want to get the pizza when they want rather than waiting a regular oven for a while to saturate. Those people could not enjoy the 90 secs pizza without a steel oven.

Could you elaborate on this?

[v12spirit]

Re: Casted Ovens versus Metal Ovens

Could you elaborate on this?

I mean steel ovens allow you to get 90 sec pizza any time you want; the heat up time (about 15 min) is not far more than the time you take to knead your ready dough, prepare the toppings, and top it. On the contrary, casted ovens want to take their time heating up to allow you get 90 sec pizzas. Both can eventually cook in 90 secs, but the steel has a better heating up performance. Without this performance, nobody of those impatient people could enjoy 90 sec pizza at home.

I'm sure if one of them was told that he has to wait 90-180 min to saturate the oven, he would abandon using it altogether, unless he was educated in this forum how to enjoy operating authentic wood fired ovens.

[stonecutter]

Re: Casted Ovens versus Metal Ovens

I mean steel ovens allow you to get 90 sec pizza any time you want; the heat up time (about 15 min) is not far more than the time you take to knead your ready dough, prepare the toppings, and top it. On the contrary, casted ovens want to take their time heating up to allow you get 90 sec pizzas. Both can eventually cook in 90 secs, but the steel has a better heating up performance. Without this performance, nobody of those impatient people could enjoy 90 sec pizza at home.

I'm sure if one of them was told that he has to wait 90-180 min to saturate the oven, he would abandon using it altogether, unless he was educated in this forum how to enjoy operating authentic wood fired ovens.

True, steel is faster for sure. That's an interesting thought...about impatient users. I'm not sure if that type of person would even consider a brick or cast oven to start with though.

[moderator]

Re: Casted Ovens versus Metal Ovens

Good discussion so far. When discussing heat up times, I think it is important to note that while steel ovens do heat up faster, many on the forum have much larger ovens.

The heat time for a Refractory dome of similar size to the metal ovens (like the Giardino kit series) is 20 minutes compared to 15 for steel.

However, the cool down time of Steel ovens is much faster, and with the lightweight portable design, Steel ovens allow pizza on the go!